Extras You Should Add To Your Auto Insurance Policy This Spring

When you sign up for auto insurance, all of the options that you can choose from can be overwhelming. That is why you should go back over your insurance policy this spring, and review your coverage. Here are a few extra coverage options that fall outside of the general required coverage by most states that may be worth adding to your insurance policy.

#1 Rental Car Coverage

When your get into a car accident and your insurance pays to fix up your car, it is important to realize that you will be without a vehicle while your car is repaired or until you are able to find and purchase a new vehicle if your car was considered unfixable. During this time, regular coverage does not provide you with alternative transportation - that is your responsibility. Renting a car can be really expensive and add up quickly to hundreds of dollars while you are waiting to have your vehicle repaired.

You can avoid this extra expense by signing up for rental car reimbursement. With rental car reimbursement, if you are in an accident, regardless of who is at fault, your insurance company will provide you with a rental car, generally for about a month. There is a limit to the rental car reimbursement, so you can't rent the most expensive rental for a month; you'll need to look at your policy limit and choose a rental size that your insurance company will recover. Rental car coverage is generally very inexpensive and doesn't increase your policy that much, while providing you with a very valuable service should you need a vehicle after an accident. 

#2 Roadside Assistance

Most rental insurance companies now offer their own roadside assistance program; you no longer need to sign up for  outside roadside assistance. Like rental car coverage, the cost is generally very low and reasonable and should not dramatically increase your insurance policy. Insurance companies are still competing with outside roadside assistance companies and therefor generally offer competitive rates.

Roadside assistance generally allows you to make a couple of calls during your six-month insurance coverage period. It covers such common roadside assistance needs as: lockouts, flat tires, towing and extra gas for an empty tank. Paying for these things individual, should you need them, can easily exceed the cost of adding roadside assistance coverage to your policy. 

#3 Payoff Protection

The third insurance extra you should consider adding to your policy is payoff protection if you are still paying off the loan on your vehicle. Payoff protection will ensure that your auto loan is completely paid off if you are in an accident. This is important because your insurance company could value your vehicle below the amount of money you still have to pay off on your auto loan. If you don't have payoff protection, and the insurance company values your vehicle below your loan amount, you'll be stuck paying off a loan on a vehicle you don't even have. If you have payoff protection, your insurance company will cover the gap between that they value your car at and what you own on the vehicle, allowing you to pay off your auto loan and not be stuck with a loan on a car that has been totaled. 

Take some time this spring to review your insurance coverage and see if any of these extras make sense to add to your auto insurance policy. 

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